Early days: Before the Siuslaw Indians even had much contact with Europeans and Americans, diseases such as smallpox caught indirectly decimated some of their villages. When Hudson Bay traders looking for beaver arrived in the area in 1826, the Siuslaw lived along the coast in 30+ villages, in and around what is now Florence. They lived in permanent cedar plank houses, and hunted, gathered, and fished, moving to seasonal camps upriver to follow the salmon and lamprey eel. The staple edible root was camas lily, which was baked a full day. The many types of locally growing berries were eaten fresh or dried.
By 1836, the Siuslaw and other neighboring tribes began regularly trading hides for goods with Hudson Bay Company traders. The first settlers arrived in 1850. In 1855, the U.S. Government signed a treaty with all the coastal Indian tribes, removing them to the Siletz Reservation on the Central Oregon Coast. Since the Siuslaw River was then inside the reservation at the southern edge, many Siuslaw families attempted farming along the river. In 1875, a year before the first cannery began business in Florence, a U.S. congressional act removed large tracts of land from the Siletz, including the Alsea Subagency, to which some Siuslaw had moved earlier, and the land around the Siuslaw River, in violation of the 1855 Treaty. This illegal act forced many Siuslaw families out of their homes. Some moved onto the shrunken and increasingly crowded reservation, others attempted to go into hiding, and still others intermarried with white people.
From bad to worse: In 1916, the Siuslaw began working together with the Coos and Umpqua tribes, who had also been displaced illegally from their lands. After years of lobbying Congress, the tribes were given a hearing in 1931, and their land claims were rejected, because they didn’t use "outside experts" to validate their claim, and had historically been so peaceful, a lot of people didn’t even realize they were around. In 1941, a meeting hall was built on 6 acres of land near Empire, which had been donated to the Siuslaw. They didn’t give up, but in 1956, Eisenhower’s termination policy in effect stated all the tribes of western Oregon "no longer existed", which makes about as much sense as a little child closing its eyes and thinking the outside world has disappeared. After almost 3 decades of struggle, the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw tribes were restored to recognized status in 1984. These three confederated tribes are the only Oregon tribes that have not to this day been compensated in any way for the loss of their lands: 1.6 million acres from Yachats to Coquille.
The struggle continues: June 19, 2004 was a red letter day for the Siuslaw tribe. It marked the opening of Three Rivers Casino, the ninth Indian casino in Oregon. The confederated tribes had to BUY the 98 acres adjacent to Florence so that they could begin work on their planned casino. But one year later in 1999, the U.S. Department of the Interior ruled that it was not reservation land, so could therefore not be used for gambling. Following granted appeals and counter-appeals, the legal battle continues even as the hotly contested casino opened its doors. A local group opposed to the casino,
People Against a Casino Town filed a lawsuit against Oregon, its governor, and the confederated tribes, claiming that the casino is in violation of the state constitution.
Three Rivers Casino opened at the beginning of summer 2004 in a 16,000 square foot military type structure with high tech slots, height-adjustable black leather upholstered chairs, and complimentary Pepsi. The One-Eyed Jacks Lounge serves alcohol. Florence townfolk have mixed opinions about the casino. Although Three Rivers employs 200 people in this town of 7100, have built their own sewer and water systems (even though only a mile from downtown Florence, being outside of city limits), and provide their own police protection, many Florence residents seem not to want to learn from the largely beneficial impact on surrounding towns and communities that other Indian casinos have had. Not to mention that confederated tribes’ motives in establishing these casinos is not akin to the glitzy hedonistic Las Vegas gambling palaces, but merely to allow their people to regain some economic independence and self-respect.
Another uphill battle: It saddens me when indigenous peoples’ and environmentalists’ interests seem at odds. This is what is apparently going on right now (September 2004) between the confederated tribes and some local conservation groups. The current conflict involves a headland, Gregory Point, and nearby Chief’s Island (Lighthouse Island), which the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) are preparing to turn over to the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians. These lands are among the ancestral homelands of the Coos Indians. There are a small cemetery and an abandoned Coast Guard housing facility on Gregory Point; the tribes want to use the buildings for tribal offices. Chief’s Island is the only one of the over 1800 islands off the Oregon coast that is not under the protection of the Oregon Islands Natural Wildlife Refuge, and conservation groups want to make it unanimous. I am not against preventing chopping up ecosystems, but give me a break! Most Indian tribes are NOT known for how little they respect the land and how all they want to do is make profits off it and open it to massive tourism. Hey, that’s US (of European ancestry) that’s done most of that all through our history, requiring agencies such as national refuges to protect the land.
We’re planning another jaunt up the Oregon Coast next summer 2005, and I’m looking forward to checking out Three Rivers Casino. With the tight security we’ve come to recognize as common on Indian casino parking lots in Oregon and other states, I doubt our car’s going to be clouted while we’re there!